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Data-Oriented Programming in Java (20)
Nicolai (aka nipafx) is a Java enthusiast focused on language features and core APIs with a passion for learning and sharing – in articles, newsletters, and books; in tweets, videos, and streams; in demo repos and at conferences – more on all of that on nipafx.dev. He’s a Java Developer Advocate at Oracle and organizer of Accento. That aside, he’s best known for his haircut.
Abstract
In data-oriented programming (DOP), we model data as data and polymorphic behavior with pattern matching. This talk will introduce the concept of DOP and its four principles:
- model the data, the whole data, and nothing but the data
- data is immutable
- validate at the boundary
- make illegal states unrepresentable
We’ll also explore how to use pattern matching as a safe, powerful, and maintainable mechanism for ad-hoc polymorphism on such data that lets us define operations without overloading the types with functionality. The talk ends with a juxtaposition to OOP, so you not only learn how to employ DOP but also when (not).
